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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/22598032">keep my hand in yours</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/truthwallflower/pseuds/truthwallflower'>truthwallflower</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>keep me [6]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Established Relationship, F/M, Fluff, two dorks in love</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-02-07</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-02-07</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-04-28 14:40:23</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,139</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/22598032</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/truthwallflower/pseuds/truthwallflower</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Who would've thought a stray trip to Mcdonalds would make her so introspective?</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>My Unit | Byleth/Claude von Riegan</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>keep me [6]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1546423</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>6</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>105</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>keep my hand in yours</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Just a short little fluffy piece my brain latched on to when I saw a fan art of Claude in modern clothes :) Also because I love you guys and your reviews make my day.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Claude picks his pickles out of his burger. </p><p>Byleth stares in amusement, a thin eyebrow arched as she stares at her boyfriend. He doesn’t seem to notice, too immersed in placing his hands just so, as if his pinkies were a stopper, his fingertips edging at just the right angle for his first bite to be sumptuous. He twists the burger a couple of times, a dopey look on his face and his eyes hypnotised, aiming for the perfect spot, where there’s just enough cheese to sauce to meat to bread ratio.</p><p>“The first and the last bite are supposed to be the best,” she remembers him telling her once. He’d had sauce on his cheek, and he’d been slowly sluicing the leftover grease that had rolled onto his fingers by sucking at them intently between words.</p><p>But she has been with him long enough that it is the simpler oddities that she takes note of now. There were three pickles in there, and part of Byleth wonders, as she idly snacks on her fries, if he will say something stupidly finicky to explain it away. “I only eat the pickles if they come in slices of four,” maybe.</p><p>Claude blinks at her, finally noticing her bemusement. “What?” he says, voice muffled by his first bite, still very much so in his mouth.</p><p>Her smile turns a little more fond when she remembers times, before familiarity had eroded pretences of vanity, when he used to take teeny bites at a time. When she’d taken note, much earlier in their relationship, he had blushed and stammered. The less food in his mouth, the quicker he could fire out a witty, charming response. Her tittering at his answer had resulted in his own laughter. “Well, you’re not here for my good looks, are you? Gotta keep you convinced with something, right?”</p><p>The way his hair was swept so naturally, a curly mess with a single strand teasing non-compliance over his face constantly, said otherwise. His skin was smooth, except for where his facial hair peeked out, always meticulously groomed in a sharp line over his jaw. Said jaw was straight enough that the pop of muscle that flexed when he was passionate was all that could distract from such an even cut line.</p><p>“You forgot something.”</p><p>Claude glanced down to where her finger pointed, scrunching up his nose as he swallowed his first bite. He seemed put off, his nymph eyes squinted in disgust as he pulled a part of the burger wrapper over the pickles. When they were no longer visible, he seemed noticeably less disgruntled, sucking some coke from his straw petulantly.</p><p>Byleth ducked her head, hiding a smile. Claude had his preferences, but she’d never noticed him have such a sheer avoidance to any other type of food before. He was usually so outwardly nonchalant that seeing this side of him was refreshing.</p><p>When he caught her staring again, he flicked his hair away and sent her a roguish grin, lips pulling upwards as he released the straw from his lips. The plumpness of his lips did little to betray the ravishing hunger he’d exuded earlier. Claude flexed out his forearm, visible from the hoodie sleeves he’d rolled up. Muscles and veins seemed to strain under the tanned skin, and he held his hand out to her over the table.</p><p>Byleth let out a small smile, placing her own hand, much more lithe in comparison, into his palm. She made sure to skitter her fingers over his pulse point as she found her place in his hand, loving the little jump it made every time she did it. His fingers, practically swallowing her hand, tightened and flexed around her own.</p><p>When she looked up from their entwined fingers, despite the tight hold he had, he was once again biting into his burger, a quiet look of satisfied contemplation smoothing out his brow. A passerby would probably have thought he was focused on his food, but Byleth knew by the no doubt uncomfortable way he had to bend and twist his elbow over the table so far that holding her hand like this wasn’t just a casual assurance.</p><p>He might have been feeling overwhelmed again, if his quiet demeanour was anything to go by. Sometimes he got in his head, getting overwhelmed by his environment at random moments and not being able to stop the whirring in his head. Claude had described it to her once, like he had spurts of moments where it was like he was supposed to be figuring something out, like some kind of calculation running through his mind, except of words and friends and solutions to that one sociology question from two months ago.</p><p>He usually would reach for her in those moments, like an anchor. Physically touching her to ground himself in reality. Either that, or he would speak, a mile a minute, almost as if he was giving a speech that his lips couldn’t quite move fast enough to, his eyes wild and gestures frenzied as he expelled everything rushing through his brain. She could count on one hand the amount of people he relied on for those moments. His facades and pretences at suave aloofness were a large reason for that.</p><p>Byleth felt Claude squeeze her hand, sweeping his thumb over the soft skin on the back of it. When she looked at him, it was to a soft smile. Almost shy, despite the fact they’d been dating for almost three years. </p><p>Sometimes he also reached out for her like that simply because he loved her. Byleth held on tight to his hand. A secretive little smile reached her lips when she felt his legs, stretched out to ridiculous lengths, trapping her calf in between his own.</p><p>His facial expression didn’t change, just that intent little look at his food, carrying on about his business. She could see where all the salt and burger juices had dripped down his free hand, unoccupied from the burger he’d almost seemed to swallow in three bites, and they both had bags under their eyes from long nights and hard days. She knew for a fact that he only wore his hoodie because he couldn’t find any clean shirts, and that he’d messed up at work the previous week. And yet, Claude’s hand firmly cradling hers, legs swaying on either side of her own, she felt giddy all the same.</p><p>Byleth didn’t need a special moment in order for Claude to make her feel special. He looked up, leaning slightly more into her space, and smiled. His eyes lit up just looking at her, like the sun poking in to holy grounds through leafy foliage. Her heart seemed to squeeze at the look. Byleth loved this man very much.</p><p>Even if he didn’t like pickles.</p>
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